protocol used in the {VMS} community. So called because DEC
helped write the Ethernet specification and then (either stupidly
or as a malignant customer-control tactic) violated that spec in
the design of DRECNET in a way that made it incompatible. See also
{connector conspiracy}.

:driver: /n./ 1. The {main loop} of an event-processing
program; the code that gets commands and dispatches them for
execution. 2. [techspeak] In `device driver', code designed to
handle a particular peripheral device such as a magnetic disk or
tape unit. 3. In the TeX world and the computerized typesetting
world in general, a program that translates some device-independent
or other common format to something a real device can actually
understand.

:droid: /n./ [from `android', SF terminology for a humanoid
robot of essentially biological (as opposed to
mechanical/electronic) construction] A person (esp. a
low-level bureaucrat or service-business employee) exhibiting most
of the following characteristics: (a) naive trust in the wisdom of
the parent organization or `the system'; (b) a blind-faith
propensity to believe obvious nonsense emitted by authority figures
(or computers!); (c) a rule-governed mentality, one unwilling or
unable to look beyond the `letter of the law' in exceptional
situations; (d) a paralyzing fear of official reprimand or worse if
Procedures are not followed No Matter What; and (e) no interest in
doing anything above or beyond the call of a very
narrowly-interpreted duty, or in particular in fixing that which is
broken; an "It's not my job, man" attitude.